May 20, 2014

The Department of Health has commissioned the world's biggest study into the effects of mobile phones' radio waves on childrens' brains, nine years after a government study said children should only use mobile phones when "absolutely necessary". [via The Guardian]

The Study of Cognition, Adolescents and Mobile Phones (Scamp) will examine about 2,500 schoolchildren at the ages of 11 and 12, collect data about how they use the phones and how much time they spend on them, and assess them two years later on mental functions such as memory and attention, which continue to develop into the teenage years.

While no study has ever shown harmful effects from the low-power radio waves, known as "non-ionizing radiation", generated by mobile phones, almost all have focused on adults.

The last advice on childrens' use of mobile phones came in the Stewart report in January 2005, in which Sir William Stewart suggested that as a precaution children under eight should not use mobile phones at all, and that older children should use it for texting rather than voice calls.